ROSENBERG: The film - a period piece about a mid-20th century Soviet scientist - was known simply as "Dau." Its director, Ilya Khrzhanovsky, had only one previous title to his credit. But now, supplied with a seemingly endless amount of money from various investors and four years into the production with no end in sight, Khrzhanovsky has supposedly gone mad with power, insisting that his cast and crew live full-time on an increasingly large and elaborate set, cut off from the outside world.

IDOV: It was 1 a.m. and even at 1 a.m. it was huge and it was populated. There were janitors in Soviet dress sweeping the streets. There were militia men in Soviet uniforms patrolling the perimeter, just sort of, you know, imbuing it with some sort of crazy authenticity. And you might ask when was he directing and the answer is he wasn't. That whole month the cameras weren't rolling.

ROSENBERG: In other words, most of these actors weren't actually actors at all. Or if they were they weren't acting anymore. The janitors, the barbers, those were their real jobs now. They worked and even lived on the set whether Khrzhanovsky was shooting or not. As if to prove it, he would take Michael into structures which Michael thought were just facades, but which proved to be fully functional apartment buildings, complete with 1950s refrigerators stocked with 1950s food, stamped with 1950s expiration dates.

more here (http://www.npr.org/2014/12/12/370331816/the-never-ending-film) and here (http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201111/movie-set-that-ate-itself-dau-ilya-khrzhanovsky?printable=true&currentPage=all)

An update (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n19/james-meek/diary) on the post-production process

Title: Re: Dau
Post by: jenkins on October 26, 2015, 12:18:39 AM

after i realized the video was from May i read the article. this is something. this movie could have its own thread.

Quote

Others have seen Dau as a realisation of the gargantuan theatrical folie de grandeur portrayed in Charlie Kaufman’s film Synecdoche, New York; except that there are few professional careers at stake beyond Khrzhanovsky’s own, and thus no equivalent to the plaintive cry of the actors to Philip Seymour Hoffman’s director: ‘When are we going to get an audience in here? It’s been 17 years.’ It hasn’t been 17 years, though it has been long enough for the country where it was conceived to invade the country where it was filmed.

Title: Re: Dau
Post by: wilder on October 26, 2015, 01:28:35 AM

done

Title: Re: Dau
Post by: wilder on July 21, 2017, 06:53:08 PM

An update:

Quote

In 2017 The Telegraph reported that the film is still being edited and the production company is quoted as saying, “Our project consists of over 700 hours of material all shot on 35mm out of which the company is making feature films, TV series and a slate of science and art documentaries, as well as a trans-media project”.

Title: Re: Dau
Post by: Lottery on July 23, 2017, 12:51:36 AM

This sounds insane and utterly fantastic.

Good value too with all that additional media being created.

Kinda reminds me of Tati with his Tativille set.

I love the idea of building the world and having the freedom to move in all directions and create a story from setting.